V final battle
Oh dear. And it was all going so well.
After the excellent mini-series this follow up (and intended conclusion to the whole story) is an overlong mess. A sour mixture of incoherent plot, bloated scenes, and an abandonment of powerful allegory for cheap thrills and horror. Part 1 still manages to maintain the pace, intrigue and excitement of the mini-series, but soon after the whole thing falls apart. Plaudits to the cast for carrying bravely on but even they fall prey to the overblown drama at the end.
It's tempting to lay the blame on the lizard baby, but despite being an obvious puppet the casts' reactions before we see the monstrosity were enough to keep me in the story and suitably disturbed. No, the fault begins and ends with the writing. It comes across as though they were given 3 parts first and then told to fill them, rather than working out how many parts they actually had story for. As it is, they end up throwing in as many plot threads as possible but with little sense to any of them. People die by the dozen, telegraphed every time with a "let's get married" or "I'll tell you all about it when you get back". At first it seems a brave choice to kill off well-known characters, but by he end the effect has diminished to nothing though repetition. Members of the resistance walk out of the compound and over to the enemy like it's an afternoon stroll. Lizard babies appear only to be dismissed 5 minutes later after serving their plot purpose. The resistance change compound at the start of each part with even one of the characters commenting how silly it's getting. And don't get me started on red and white sparkly aura around the sudden-growth mutant child at the end that comes from nowhere and somehow defuses the mega bomb we were conveniently only told about 40 minutes earlier. It's a disaster.
Frankly I'm amazed the cast got through the whole shoot with a straight face, but it's a good thing they did as it was only their commitment to the roles that got me to the end. I must say the cinematography was beautiful throughout, apart from the moments they switched to stock footage and the film grain changed.
At least it was still more fun than the remake, but then so is colonic irrigation.
2/5
